Changing the creation of Allah

The Prophet (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) said, “Allah has cursed the females who get a tattoo and the females who tattoo, the females that pluck their eye brows and the females who pluck them, the females who file their teeth for beauty and the females who change the creation of Allah.”

[Sahih Al-Bukhari and Muslim]

Commentary:

Allah has also cursed and condemned the tattooed one and the tattooist, the plucker and the plucked one and the ones who change the creation of Allah.

This includes the tattooist who draws into the cheeks of women, on their noses, under their lips and many other places of the face and body such as the shoulder blades, shoulders and forearms.

The process of tattooing involves piercing the shallow skin of the body and fusing ink inside so it is visible from the top of the skin, it appears as if the skin is covered with ink but it is permanently drawn underneath. In color of green, black or blue, they are all haram (prohibited) and the tattooist is cursed by Allah on the tongue of His Messenger (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam).

Also involved in this curse is the tattooed one who sits patiently through the session while the ink is painfully squirted into their skin. They are also cursed be it a male or female, be it an artistic shape, an image of an animal or cartoon or other effects of tattoos on the body.

As for the plucker, it is the male or female involved in the profession of hair removal, who pluck the hair of the eyebrows to make them thinner or style them into a particular way for the customer. If the female or male cannot pluck their own eyebrows, they simply request it from a relative, friend or professional for a fee or for free, they are all cursed.

The plucked one is the one who sits through the process and requests that her or his eye brows be plucked into a particular shape or design. Both of them are cursed on the tongue of the Messenger (sal Allahu alaihi wa sallam) and what we find today is plucking out of control. You can visit a ‘beauty’ shop where someone is willing to pluck everything including the hair of the eyebrows.

As for the filer, she is someone who will file her front two teeth to make them shorter or to deliberately create a gap between them for beautification reasons. Their belief is that they appear younger as children’s teeth are naturally like that. This tradition however, is not as common today as it used to be in the past.

The other general group of people is those who change the creation of Allah. They are dissatisfied with what Allah had given them and how Allah ordained their appearance to be. They change what is visible and what is not visible in accordance with social culture or her/his whims and what she/he thinking is appealing at the time instead of what Allah willed. They may be a victim to the pressure of popular culture, or simply feel ‘bored’ with their appearance or even complain of their creation, we seek refuge in Allah from such a mentality.

These people go through extremes to change the creation of Allah and this is something that is becoming more and more popular: plastic surgery, corrective surgery and what we have mentioned earlier, all of which is cursed.